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Tag Archives: Rupaul’s Drag Race

Since I was 19 or 20, [perhaps directly related to starting to watch Rupaul’s Drag Race,] I have reminded myself every day, most earnestly at my low points, of the simple fact that I am not alone….This seems too basic, right? It’s actually a multi-step process, but for me it’s fast, easy, and effortless now. If I grew up with the mindset I’ve gained because of this way that I choose to view humanity, I’m pretty sure I would’ve been a far kinder, fairer, more reflective and considerate person years ago.

Think about how you identify. For example, I am a wheelchair-bound woman in her early twenties.

Think about all the people who share your circumstances, whether you know them or not.

There are so many minorities. Instead of narrowing that to define yourself or part of yourself and others, broaden it. Stretch it until the minority is a decimal of a single percent away from the majority, then until the majority and the minority have melded into one population.

And so you are the opposite of alone; you are connected. Everyone shares something, whether it be a feeling or a person or belief, ability, sexuality, gender, ease, color, love, lust, experience, loss, or anything else. Every way that we differ doesn’t change the fact that we do share something. Without minorities, the significance, but not the existence, of labels has lessened.

People who say that labels shouldn’t exist haven’t given labels enough thought. I would define generic labels as self-identifying tattoos. We don’t have to get them in an easily exposed location, but they’re still there. I haven’t yet met a person who doesn’t comfortably wear at least one self-identifying tattoo.

And no matter how you identify, try to remember that the one tattoo that you share with everybody is that of a human being.